LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 25/16
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletin16/english.april25.16.htm
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Bible Quotations For Today
When young you used to fasten
your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will
stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take
you where you do not wish to go.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 21/15-19:"When they had
finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love
me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’
A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to
him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my
sheep.’He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter
felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said
to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to
him, ‘Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to
fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you
will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and
take you where you do not wish to go.’(He said this to indicate the kind of
death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’"
For by grace you have been
saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not
the result of works, so that no one may boast.
Letter to the Ephesians 02/01-10:"You were dead through the trespasses and sins
in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler
of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are
disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh,
following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of
wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love
with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us
alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with
him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in
the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness
towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and
this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so
that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Question: "What does the Bible say about capitalism?"
GotQuestions.org/Answer: The dictionary
defines capitalism as “an economic system characterized by private or corporate
ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private
decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are
determined mainly by competition in a free market.” While the Bible doesn’t
mention capitalism by name, it does speak a great deal about economic issues.
For example, whole sections of the book of Proverbs and many of the parables of
Jesus deal with economic matters. As such, we learn what our attitude should be
toward wealth and how a Christian should handle his finances. The Bible also
provides us with a description of our human nature which helps us to evaluate
the possible success of and failure of an economic system in society.
Because economics is an area where much of our everyday life takes place, we
should evaluate it from a biblical perspective. When we use the Bible as our
framework, we can begin to construct the model for a government and an economy
that liberates human potential and limits human sinfulness. In Genesis 1:28, God
says we are to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. One aspect of this is
that humans can own property in which they can exercise their dominion. Since we
have both volition and private property rights, we can assume that we should
have the freedom to exchange these private property rights in a free market
where goods and services can be exchanged.
However, due to the ravages of sin, many parts of the world have become places
of decay and scarcity. And, though God has given us dominion over His creation,
we must be good stewards of the resources at our disposal. Historically, the
free enterprise system has provided the greatest amount of freedom and the most
effective economic gains of any economic system ever devised. Even so,
Christians often wonder if they can support capitalism. In essence,
self-interest is rewarded in a free capitalist system. But even the gospel
appeals to our self-interest, because it is in our self-interest to accept Jesus
Christ as our savior so that our eternal destiny will be assured.
From a Christian perspective, the basis of private property rests in our being
created in God's image. We can make choices over property that we can exchange
in a market system. But sometimes the desire for private property grows out of
our sinfulness. Correspondingly, our sinful nature also produces laziness,
neglect, and slothfulness. The fact is that economic justice can best be
achieved if each person is accountable for his own productivity.
Historically, capitalism has had a number of advantages. It has liberated
economic potential. It has also provided the foundation for a great deal of
political and economic freedom. When government is not controlling markets, then
there is economic freedom to be involved in an array of entrepreneurial
activities. Capitalism has also led to a great deal of political freedom,
because once we limit the role of government in economics, we limit the scope of
government in other areas. It is no accident that most of the countries with the
greatest political freedom usually have a great deal of economic freedom.
However, Christians cannot and should not endorse every aspect of capitalism.
For example, many proponents of capitalism hold a view known as utilitarianism,
which is opposed to the notion of biblical absolutes. Certainly, we must reject
this philosophy. Also, there are certain economic and moral issues that must be
addressed. Though there are some valid economic criticisms of capitalism such as
monopolies and the byproduct of pollution, these can be controlled by limited
governmental control. And when capitalism is wisely controlled, it generates
significant economic prosperity and economic freedom for its people.
One of the major moral arguments against capitalism is greed, which is why many
Christians feel unsure about the free enterprise system. Critics of capitalism
contend that this system makes people greedy. But then we must ask whether
capitalism makes people greedy or do we already have greedy people who use the
economic freedom of the capitalistic system to achieve their ends? In light of
the biblical description of human nature (Jeremiah 17:9), the latter seems more
likely. Because people are sinful and selfish, some are going to use the
capitalist system to satisfy their greed. But that is not so much a criticism of
capitalism as it is a realization of the human condition. The goal of capitalism
is not to change bad people but to protect us from them. Capitalism is a system
in which bad people can do the least harm and good people have the freedom to do
good works. Capitalism works best with moral individuals. But it also functions
adequately with selfish and greedy people.It’s important to realize that there is a difference between self-interest and
selfishness. All people have self-interests which can operate in ways that are
not selfish. For example, it is in our self-interest to get a job and earn an
income so that we can support our family. We can do that in ways that are not
selfish. By contrast, other economic systems such as socialism ignore the
biblical definitions of human nature. As a result, they allow economic power to
be centralized and concentrate power in the hands of a few greedy people. Those
who complain of the influence major corporations have on our lives should
consider the socialist alternative where a few governmental bureaucrats control
every aspect of our lives.
Though greed is sometimes evident in the capitalist system, we have to
understand it’s not because of the system—it’s because greed is part of man’s
sinful nature. The solution lies not in changing the economic system but in
changing the heart of man through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources
published on April 25/16
Hezbollah's Transnational Organized
Crime/Matthew Levitt/Washington Institute/April 24/16
Lebanon, Christians, Under Islamist Threat/Shadi Khalloul/ Gatestone
Institute/April 24/16
Turkey Blackmails Europe on Visa-Free Travel/Soeren Kern/ Gatestone
Institute/April 24/16
What is Putin’s next ambitious gambit in the Middle East/Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al
Arabiya/April 24/16
Stability through sustainability/Khalid Abdulla-Janahi/Al Arabiya/April 24/16
How Saudi Arabia is planning a new economic era/Nathan Hodson/Al Arabiya/April
24/16
Signing on to a more secure and stable world/Federica Mogherini/Al Arabiya/April
24/16
The young prince and the new Saudi Arabia/Turki Al-Dakhil/Al Arabiya/April 24/16
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on April 25/16
Lebanese-Armenians Commemorate
Genocide Anniversary
Franjieh Says Either Way Future President is a March 8
Shehayyeb: H5N1 Infected Zone is Contained, Kept under Supervision
Serious proposal to elect Aoun to Lebanese presidency: Saudi daily
Proposal to offer Aoun a two-year term revisited
'Citizens in a State' campaign announces names of candidates running for
municipal elections in Beirut
Machnouk meets with Turki al Faysal behind closed doors
Shabteeni: we reject strife and engage in nation building
Australian delegation pays visit to Hadchit
Hajj Hassan: We are fighting the cultural project of takfirists
Yazbek: Netanyahu et al, won't extinguish Hezbollah's light
Zaiter: Our alliance with Hezbollah in municipal elections for public interest
Fayyad: Hezbollah won't take any aggression easily
Hezbollah's Transnational Organized Crime
Lebanon, Christians, Under Islamist Threat
Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on
April 25/16
26th anniversary of Kazem Rajavi’s
assassination by Iran’s regime
IRAN: Ailing political prisoner shown support from ex-Tehran University
chancellor
At Least 14 Dead in Regime, Rebel Attacks in Syria's Aleppo
Ten Wounded as Turkish Town Hit by Syria Rocket Fire
Sending Troops to Syria Would be 'Mistake', Obama Warns
Senior commander from Syria rebel group killed
Obama says Syria ‘safe zone’ a practical problem
Obama Embracing Ally Merkel on Farewell Trip to Germany
Obama urges reinstatement of Syria ceasefire
Differences Persist as Yemen Peace Talks Enter 4th Day
Clashes between Iraqi Kurds, Turkmen Kill Nine
Syria-born Greek Mayor Takes Charge of 'Lucky' Refugees
26 wounded as Turkish town hit by Syria rocket fire
Israel frees youngest Palestinian prisoner
Migrants break through Macedonia border
Serbia votes with PM calling for European future
South Africa’s president praises 1979 revolution during Iran trip
Death toll from Ecuador earthquake surpasses 650
Strengthening ties with Saudi Arabia is priority, says new Italian envoy
Links From
Jihad Watch Site for
April 25/16
Missouri: Muslim migrant threatens to kill family that sponsored
him, faces deportation
Saudi family therapist explains wife-beating: “Some wives want to live a life of
equality…This is a very grave problem.”
German police arrest politician for citing anti-Erdogan satire
Muslim Harvard student asks Israeli politician why she is “smelly”
Two Muslims get life for Islamic State plots against soldiers,
police, and civilians
Titles For Latest Lebanese Related News published on April 25/16
Lebanese-Armenians Commemorate
Genocide Anniversary
Naharnet/April 24/16/Lebanon's Armenians marked on Sunday the 101 anniversary of
when some 250 Armenian intellectuals were rounded up by Ottoman Turks as the
first step of the genocide against them. A demonstration marched from the
Antelias Square to the town's main highway marking the genocide that was
committed around the time of World War I. It is 101 years on Sunday since
Turkey's Ottoman government began arresting minority community leaders and
setting in motion a campaign of systematic slaughter that had left 1.5 million
Christian Armenians dead by the early 1920s. Some 20 countries have recognized
it as genocide as well as the European Parliament. But Turkey rejects the
claims, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in
civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with
invading Russian troops.
Franjieh Says Either Way
Future President is a March 8
Naharnet/April 24/16/Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh stated on Sunday
that the most important accomplishment is that the future president will be
elected from the March 8 camp whether it was founder of the Free Patriotic
Movement MP Michel Aoun or himself. “The most important accomplishment has been
achieved. The president will be elected from our (March 8) group and we must not
lose that whether it was Aoun elected or Suleiman Franjieh,” said the MP via
Skype addressing his Marada supporters in Australia. “My political positions
have not changed, but there are some pressing external circumstances that we
must handle,” he added. Highlighting his endorsement for the post of presidency
by al-Mustaqbal movement chief MP Saad Hariri the MP said: “New friendships may
lead to political understandings. Sooner or later, the Lebanese will have no
alternative but dialogue. “We as the Marada movement have always taken the
decision to maintain openness, dialogue and build mutual convictions despite all
the differences. Our talks with Saad Hariri have shown us that there are common
grounds,” he concluded saying. Franjieh's comments came after reports alleged
that a “serious” suggestion has emerged to elect Aoun as president for a period
of two years. The reports also said that two unnamed major political officials
have approved the proposal and are set to market the idea to Aoun's ally
Hizbullah. Lebanon has been without a head of state since May 2014 when the term
of President Michel Suleiman ended. The race for the top state has been confined
to Change and Reform bloc chief Aoun and Franjieh. There is also centrist
candidate MP Henri Helou. However, not a single candidate is able to garner the
needed votes to be elected president. Sessions aimed at electing a head of state
are being adjourned over lack of the required two-thirds quorum of the
128-member parliament.
Shehayyeb: H5N1 Infected Zone
is Contained, Kept under Supervision
Naharnet/April 24/Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb assured on Sunday that
the an area detected with an H5N1 bird flu virus in al-Nabi sheet has been put
under supervision, An Nahar daily reported. “The area where the virus was
detected has been controlled,” he told the daily in an interview. “We are
keeping an eye on it and have placed it under a 72-hour supervision,” he
emphasized. On Thursday, Shehayyeb said that the virus has been detected in one
of the poultry farms in al-Nabi Sheet in Baalbek and that the ministry has
kicked off efforts to prevent full-fledged epidemic. Reports said that an
outbreak was detected in ten poultry farms including al-Nabi Sheet and that the
area was said to be declared an infected zone. Some precautionary measures were
taken including getting rid of birds that could be infected with the virus. H5N1
is a type of influenza virus that causes a highly infectious, severe respiratory
disease in birds called avian influenza. Human cases of H5N1 occur occasionally,
but it is difficult to transmit the infection from person to person. The
ministry has also banned the farmers from sending any of its poultry out of the
town as a precautionary measure to contain any potential spread of the virus.
Related authorities carried out field inspection in villages neighboring al-Nabi
Sheet including Sareein, Hor Taala, al-Khodr and al-Khraybeh, reports said.
Serious
proposal to elect Aoun to Lebanese presidency: Saudi daily
The Daily Star/Apr. 24, 2016/BEIRUT: There is a proposal to elect Free Patriotic
Movement founder Michel Aoun to the Lebanese presidency for two years, the Saudi
Okaz newspaper reported Sunday without identifying its proponents. A source told
the Saudi daily that there is a “serious proposal” to elect Aoun and it already
has the approval of two unnamed Lebanese political parties. But one of these
parties “has guaranteed to market the idea to Hezbollah,” the source said. Aoun,
who is one of the main contenders for presidency, is backed by Hezbollah, some
of its other March 8 coalition allies and rival group, the Lebanese Forces.
Marada Movement leader MP Sleiman Frangieh is his main competitor and is
supported by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri,
MP Walid Jumblatt and some independent lawmakers. Lebanon has been without a
president for more than 23 months since the tenure of Michel Sleiman ended in
May 2014. Attempts to elect a new Lebanese head of state have been thwarted by a
continuing boycott of presidential election sessions by Aoun’s bloc, Hezbollah’s
bloc and some of its March 8 allies.
Proposal to offer Aoun a two-year
term revisited
Joseph A. Kechichian/Gulf News/A pril 24/16/Riyadh: Although former speaker
Hussain Hussaini pleaded with political elites to put their political
differences aside and elect a head of state for a one-year term, the
recommendations by one of the proponents of the Taif Accords fell on deaf ears,
even as Lebanon continued to hopelessly wallow in its presidential void. Now
there is a call to double the proposed term. According to the Saudi Okaz daily,
two unnamed but presumably leading political parties – believed to be Future and
the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) – held serious conversations that called for
the election of the FPM’s Michel Aoun “for a two-year period”, although this is
not a new idea. In mid-2014, just a few weeks after Michel Sulaiman ended his
six-year term in office, the pro-Hezbollah Al Akhbar had reported that Lebanese
officials in Paris, presumably from the anti-Syria Future party, had tabled an
identical proposal in exchange for being allowed to form the next cabinet. The
deal would allow Aoun to appoint his son-in-law, General Chamel Roukoz, head of
the army. Roukoz retired from the army several months ago. Then as now, such a
proposal requires a constitutional amendment and entails reaching an agreement
over a new parliamentary electoral law that would presumably not harm the
representation of the current leaders and protect their feudal fiefdoms. Since
Sulaiman ended his presidential term in May 2014, Hezbollah and most of its
March 8 allies cast blank votes in the first of 39 sessions to date and
boycotted the following 38 scheduled gatherings. Without a two-thirds quorum,
parliament sessions led to bickering, as Iran-backed Hezbollah insisted that it
would only participate if it received solid guarantees that its candidate, Aoun,
would be elected. In a surprise move on January 18 this year, anti-Syrian
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, also a presidential candidate, publicly
backed Aoun. Aoun now faces two opponents: Marada movement chief Sulaiman
Franjieh, who is also a March 8 candidate and was selected by the Future party’s
Sa’ad Hariri as an alternative, and Henri Helou, a Progressive Socialist Party
candidate. While Franjieh came to the forefront in the presidential polls late
last year, his nomination created insurmountable hurdles on account of his
pro-Syrian policies, and Helou is little more than a blocking candidate to
prevent anyone from reaching the required two-thirds without PSP leader Walid
Junblatt’s blessings. For now, the election of a president either for a single
or two-year term is unlikely to occur because the elites fear the adoption of a
new electoral law and, equally important, because Hezbollah does not want to
fill the post.
'Citizens in a State' campaign
announces names of candidates running for municipal elections in Beirut
Sun 24 Apr 2016/NNA - "Citizens in a State" campaign is running for municipal
elections in Beirut and has announced on Sunday the names of its candidates:
Ghada Al-Yafi, Yasser Al-Sarout, George Sfeir, and Charbel Nahhas. In a
statement issued today, the campaign said that it will announce the names of its
candidates in Bekaa, Baalbek, and Hermel within a week's time, adding that the
rest of the regions will follow suit. "People in this country stand feeble
before injustice. Their sufferings have not been transformed to a fight against
injustice because they are under the rule of the defeated," the statement read.
The campaign also saw disintegration as the biggest contributor to weakness
among the people, deeming sectarianism a locked field that's hard to open to
others, especially that each sect is ruled by a leader or two. "We demand
breaking these locked cages and allowing people to be citizens in a state rather
than citizens who are loyal to one sect or region," the statement added. The
campaign also made clear that it will be having only a few candidates in each
region in an attempt to avoid the logic of "closed rings".
Machnouk meets with Turki al
Faysal behind closed doors
Sun 24 Apr 2016/NNA - Minister of the Interior Nohad Machnouk, has met behind
closed doors in Riyadh with Saudi prince Turkey Ibn Abdul-Aziz and other senior
officials over pressing regional developments including a high - ranking
conference due to open in the Saudi capital tomorrow Monday; Saudi monarch
Selman is also expected to give a speech.
Shabteeni: we reject strife
and engage in nation building
Sun 24 Apr 2016/NNA - We
reject religious sectarian strife and insist on accepting the other something
which would secure modern nation - building, minister of the Displaced, Alice
Shabteeni, reiterated upon her touring of the Shouf mountain locality of Breeh
today.
Expressing satisfaction at the pace of rebuilding Breeh's churches and homes,
Shabteeni spoke about residents' resilience in cementing what she termed as "a
path to civil peace" so that Lebanon regains once more an era of coexistence and
unity. Whatever habits have been sowed are being actually reaped in the form of
love of life and plurality, the minister concluded.
Australian delegation pays visit to Hadchit
Sun 24 Apr 2016/NNA - The parliamentary delegation representing Australia's
Labour Party, headed by New South Whales opposition leader, Luke Foley, visited
on Sunday Hadchit town to participate in the mass chaired by Priest Milad Al
Koura.
Following the mass, Mayor of Hadchit, Elie Al Homsi, received the delegation in
the presence of the municipal council's members and other figures.
Hajj Hassan: We are fighting
the cultural project of takfirists
Sun 24 Apr 2016/NNA - Minister of Industry, Hussein Hajj Hassan, said on Sunday
at the launch of the Reading Week in Hermel, "when we fight Takfirists, we don’t
wrestle against their political or military project, but against the culture
that gave birth to these ignorant murderers."Hermel’s Reading Week has been
launched in the town’s "Assad" hall, in cooperation with the Ministry of
Culture, and under the patronage of Minister Hajj Hassan.
Yazbek: Netanyahu et al,
won't extinguish Hezbollah's light
Sun 24 Apr 2016/NNA - Netanyahu, Takfeeris and GCC threats won't extinguish
Hezbollah's light, special Khamenei representative to Lebanon cleric Muhammad
Yazbek, reiterated amid efforts aimed at reconciling feuding Zaaayter Msheik
clansmen in Jab'a locality in the Beqaa today. Netanyahu's belligerent
utterances over Hezbollah's military prowess amid Saudi - sponsored regional
conflicts testify to the worries that are actually engulfing them all, the
cleric added. Urging clansmen to remain united, Yazbek thanked all those working
for reconciliation which remains to be the cornerstone and secret code of our
strength.
Zaiter: Our alliance with
Hezbollah in municipal elections for public interest
Sun 24 Apr 2016/NNA - Minister of Public Works, Ghazi Zaiter, said on Sunday
that the alliance between Amal and Hezbollah in the municipal elections aims to
serve the public interest and help families achieve better representation rather
than to share the spoils.
Zaiter, speaking during a reconciliation between families in Bekaa, stressed
that Amal movement and Hezbollah have strategic relations on the basis of
political constants.
Fayyad: Hezbollah won't take
any aggression easily
Sun 24 Apr 2016/NNA - Hezbollah won't take any aggression easily, party
parliamentarian Ali Fayyad {responded to fresh Israeli threats), during the
funeral of a slain party member at Khiyam Husayniyya mosque today. Repeated
Israeli utterances over destroying Lebanon betrays ill feelings on part of
certain Lebanese constantly giving potential Israeli aggression the blind eye,
the MP added. Listing continued Israeli occupation of Shib'a amid territorial,
aerial and littoral transgressions, Fayyad went on to say that his party has got
enough muscle to repel any aggression by exacting an unprecedented price on
Israel; such an Israeli misadventure will be tantamount to a grave historical
folly, he retorted. Notably, Israel failed to score any point in its fight with
a then fledgling party so how about now as we've accumulated advanced expertise
in world military standards? he exclaimed.
Hezbollah's Transnational Organized Crime
Matthew Levitt/Washington Institute/April 24/16
Given the group's ever-lengthening criminal rap sheet around the world,
designating it as a TCO has become an open-and-shut case.
On the heels of several U.S. government actions targeting Hezbollah's global
criminal enterprises, including Justice Department indictments and Treasury
Department designations, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI)
is expected to release a congressionally mandated report on the subject in the
near future. The report was due April 18 but has been delayed because the topic
is sensitive within interagency circles. In addition to serving as the baseline
for deciding whether or not to designate Hezbollah as a Transnational Criminal
Organization (TCO), the report will highlight the long-simmering debate between
various departments over how to characterize the group's criminal activities.
BACKGROUND
Under the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015 (HIFPA), the
president is required to submit a report on the group's "significant
transnational criminal activities" no later than 120 days after the bill's
passage; this deadline passed on April 18. Last month, President Obama delegated
responsibility for the report to the DNI, whose office is expected to submit it
within the next few weeks. Within a month of submitting the report, the
administration is required to brief Congress on its contents and lay out the
planned procedures for designating Hezbollah as a "significant transnational
criminal organization" under Executive Order 13581 of 2011.
Since its inception, Hezbollah has leveraged worldwide networks of members and
supporters to provide financial, logistical, and sometimes even operational
support. Through these networks, the group is able to raise funds, procure
weapons and dual-use items, obtain false documents, and more. Some of these are
formal networks run by Hezbollah operatives on the ground and back in Lebanon,
but most are intentionally structured to be more informal, seeking to keep their
links with the group hazy in order to provide a measure of deniability.
Generally, the Hezbollah criminal enterprise tends to be organized around
loosely connected nodes and does not depend on hierarchical links up the group's
chain of command.
But make no mistake: Hezbollah demonstrably operates as a TCO, and this
assessment has been repeatedly and explicitly confirmed by law enforcement
investigations and criminal courts. For example, in their March 2013 ruling
against Hezbollah operative Hossam Yaacoub, a three-judge panel in Cyprus
concluded in no uncertain terms that the group "acts as a criminal
organization."
HEZBOLLAH'S BUSINESS AFFAIRS COMPONENT
In February, investigations by U.S. and European law enforcement led to the
revelation that Hezbollah's terrorist wing, the External Security Organization
(aka the Islamic Jihad Organization), runs a dedicated entity specializing in
worldwide drug trafficking and money laundering. This finding was made by a
joint operation that included the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Customs
and Border Protection, the Treasury Department, Europol, Eurojust, and
authorities in France, Germany, Italy, and Belgium. The investigation spanned
seven countries and led to the arrest of several members of Hezbollah's
so-called Business Affairs Component (BAC) on charges of drug trafficking, money
laundering, and procuring weapons for use in Syria.
The BAC is no rogue operation -- U.S. investigators determined that it was
founded by the group's senior terrorist figure, Imad Mughniyah, before his death
in 2008, and that it is now run by senior Hezbollah official Abdallah Safieddine
and other operatives such as Adham Tabaja. Safieddine, a cousin of Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah, served as the group's representative to Tehran and
helped Iranian officials access the now-defunct Lebanese Canadian Bank, which
the Treasury Department blacklisted in 2011 for having ties to a global
narcotics trafficking and money laundering network and to Hezbollah directly.
Likewise, Treasury designated Tabaja in June 2015 for providing financial
support to the group via his businesses in Lebanon and Iraq, describing him as
"a Hezbollah member" who "maintains direct ties to senior...organizational
elements, including the terrorist group's operational component, the Islamic
Jihad."
As a result of this transnational investigation, authorities arrested "top
leaders" of the BAC's "European cell." These included Mohamad Noureddine, "a
Lebanese money launderer who has worked directly with Hezbollah's financial
apparatus to transfer Hezbollah funds" through his companies while maintaining
"direct ties to Hezbollah commercial and terrorist elements in both Lebanon and
Iraq." In January, Treasury had designated Noureddine and his partner, Hamdi
Zaher El Dine, as Hezbollah terrorist operatives, noting that the group needs
individuals like these "to launder criminal proceeds for use in terrorism and
political destabilization."
HEZBOLLAH'S CRIMINAL ASSOCIATES
The outing of the BAC resulted from a series of DEA cases run under the rubric
of "Project Cassandra," which targeted "a global Hezbollah network responsible
for the movement of large quantities of cocaine in the United States and
Europe." But there are many other recent cases in which transnational organized
criminal activities are carried out by people with formal, even senior ties to
the group.
Consider the two operatives arrested in October 2015 for conspiring to launder
narcotics proceeds and international arms trafficking on behalf of Hezbollah.
Iman Kobeissi, arrested in Atlanta, had offered to launder drug money for an
undercover agent and informed him that her associates in Hezbollah were seeking
to purchase cocaine, weapons, and ammunition. Joseph Asmar, arrested in Paris
the same day in a coordinated operation, also discussed potential narcotics
transactions with an undercover agent, offering to use his connections with
Hezbollah to provide security for drug shipments. In total, the suspects
mentioned criminal contacts in at least ten countries around the world,
highlighting the transnational nature of this Hezbollah-run operation.
Indeed, the group's criminal facilitators have been arrested around the world
over the past few months, from Lithuania to Colombia and many points in between.
Others have been designated by the Treasury Department, including Kassem Hejeij,
a businessman with direct ties to Hezbollah; Husayn Ali Faour, a member of the
Islamic Jihad Organization; and Abd Al Nur Shalan, a key Hezbollah weapons
procurer who has close ties with the group's leadership. In the words of a
senior Treasury official, "Hezbollah is using so-called legitimate businesses to
fund, equip, and organize [its] subversive activities."
The involvement of bona fide Hezbollah operatives in criminal enterprises is
nothing new, however. Discounting followers who donate to "the cause" from the
proceeds of their personal criminal activities, there are many past cases of TCO
networks run directly by Hezbollah. For example, the "Barakat network" in the
Tri-Border Area of South America was led by Nasrallah's personal representative
to the region, Assad Ahmad Barakat. When Treasury designated Barakat in 2004, it
left no doubt as to his place in the group, describing him as "a key terrorist
financier in South America who has used every financial crime in the book,
including his businesses, to generate funding for Hezbollah...From
counterfeiting to extortion, this Hezbollah sympathizer committed financial
crimes and utilized front companies to underwrite terror."
CONCLUSION
Hezbollah is deeply involved in organized criminal enterprises, running illicit
networks of its own while also plugging into those of other criminal entities.
The U.S. interagency debate over how to characterize these activities is based
on a distinction that makes little difference in practice. In some cases,
Hezbollah criminal operatives are carrying out direct instructions from
Hezbollah officials. In other cases, members or supporters of the group share
the proceeds of their crimes with Hezbollah but do not always act under its
direction. The reality is that the group purposefully structures its criminal
activities and covert operations to be as opaque as possible, and whichever
model is used, Hezbollah is the ultimate beneficiary.
Moreover, the recent spike in criminal investigations has spooked the group. In
a speech last December, Nasrallah categorically denied charges that Hezbollah is
involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, and other crimes, challenging
his accusers to "Bring me the evidence!" That has now been done, in case after
case, with ample evidence from American and European law enforcement agencies.
These agencies investigate criminal activities as a matter of course and are
therefore best positioned to judge whether a group has engaged in transnational
organized crime. Intelligence agencies are at a disadvantage in this regard, so
the DNI's forthcoming report should reflect the repeated findings of law
enforcement, criminal courts, and Treasury designations. As Nasrallah's
televised denials demonstrate, investigators have pursued so many
Hezbollah-related cases that the group can no longer pretend to ignore them.
Neither should the DNI.
**Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Fellow and director of the Stein Program
on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute.
Lebanon,
Christians, Under Islamist Threat
Shadi Khalloul/ Gatestone Institute/April 24/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7896/lebanon-christians-threat
Islamic jihadist
groups are threatening Lebanese Christians and demanding that they submit to
Islam. Lebanon's Christians, descendants of Aramaic Syriacs, were the majority
in the country a mere 100 years ago.
Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim politician supported by Saudi Arabia, has invited
every Lebanese party to his office to sign a document confirming that Lebanon is
an Arab state. This is clearly intended to turn Lebanon into yet another
officially Arab Muslim state.
The next step will be to ask that the constitution of Lebanon be changed so that
the country be ruled by Sharia law, as with many other Arab and Islamic states,
including the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA constitution declares: "The
principles of Islamic Sharia shall be the main source of legislation."
Recent upheavals in Lebanon are making local Christians communities worry about
their existence as heirs and descendants of the first Christians. Christians in
the Middle East now are facing a huge genocide -- similar to the Christian
genocide that followed the Islamic conquest of the Middle East in the 7th
century A.D. Islamic jihadist groups are threatening Lebanese Christians and
demanding that they submit to Islam. Lebanon's Christians, descendants of
Aramaic Syriacs, were the majority in the country a mere 100 years ago.
The demand for Christians to convert to Islam was one of the declarations issued
by ISIS and other Islamic groups hiding in the mountainous border between Syria
and Lebanon.
Saad Hariri, a Saudi-backed Sunni Muslim politician and the son of assassinated
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, recently invited every Lebanese party to his office
to sign a document confirming that Lebanon is an Arab state. Arab state equals
Islamic laws, as with all members of the Arab League. Why is it so important to
Hariri or to the Sunni and Islamic world to include Lebanon as an Arab state and
cancel its current name as a Lebanese state only?
And why do the Arab states, including the Palestinian Authority (PA), refuse to
recognize Israel, with its 80% Jewish majority, as Jewish state, while at the
same time trying to impose the definition of an Arab state on Lebanon, whose
population is 35% non-Arab Christians?
There are approximately one million Syriac Maronites left in Lebanon, as well as
another 700,000 Christians belonging to other churches. In addition, more than
eight million Syriac Maronites live in the diaspora. These eight million
Christians fled over the centuries because of persecution by Muslims, often
conquerors of the Christian homeland. Lebanon was never a strictly Arab or
Muslim. But that is the step that Saad Hariri, as a milder face of the
expansionist ISIS ideology, would have us take -- under the guise of a modern,
moderate, Sunni secular front.
Saad Hariri, a Saudi-backed Sunni Muslim politician in Lebanon, recently invited
every Lebanese party to his office to sign a document confirming that Lebanon is
an Arab state.
Hariri's request revels what the Islamic world is planning for Lebanon, Israel
and eventually Europe and the United States. World powers need to protect
Christian, Jewish and other minorities in Middle East. Both Lebanon and Israel
must remain homelands for persecuted minorities in Middle East -- a Christian
homeland in Lebanon and a Jewish homeland in Israel -- connected to each other
geographically, assisting each other economically, and perhaps soon with a peace
agreement that could form a peaceful bridge in culture and human rights between
the West and the East.
Bashir Gemayel, the great Christian Maronite Lebanese leader who was
assassinated after being elected president in 1982, warned the West during
Lebanese Civil War that if the Islamic forces fighting against Christians win,
they would continue to the Western World, as they are, in fact, doing at
present.
This agreement for an Arab Lebanese state being requested by the Sunni
leadership is clearly intended to turn Lebanon into yet another officially Arab
Muslim state. It aims to negate the rights of the original people in the land,
just as the original Christian Copts of Egypt have been overrun, and the Aramaic
Syriac Christians of Iraq have been overrun. In Lebanon, the original people of
the land are the Aramaic-Phoenician Christians -- especially the Maronites --
who still preserve Syriac (the language Jesus spoke) as their sacred language. A
full 95% of Lebanese villages are still called by Syriac Aramaic names. Islam
and the Arabic language came to Lebanon late from Arabian Peninsula, after the
seventh century.
Hariri's wished-for step might also be supported by the Shiite Muslim party of
Hizballah: both the Sunnis and the Shiites are Islamic. The next step will be to
ask that the constitution of Lebanon be changed so that the land of the cedars
is ruled by Sharia law, as with many other Islamic states, including the
Palestinian Authority. Article 4 in the constitution of the future Palestinian
state clearly notes: "The principles of Islamic Sharia shall be the main source
of legislation."
Implementing Islamic Sharia law means having Muslim sovereignty and control over
the Aramaic Christian community.
If this Islamic ideology, implemented by so many countries, is not racism, then
what is racism?
Why does the free world, including the churches and secular Western leaders,
keep silent and demonize only Jewish Israel for protecting itself from the same
threat and ideology?
"Speak the truth and the truth will set you free." The Christians of Lebanon and
entire Middle East can save their existence only by adopting this sacred
sentence.
***Shadi Khalloul, Chairman of the Aramaic Christian Association in Israel, is a
representative of Israel's Arabic-speaking Christians and a candidate for
parliament in Israel.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. No part of the Gatestone
website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without
the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on April 25/16
26th
anniversary of Kazem Rajavi’s assassination by Iran’s regime
Sunday, 24 April 2016/NCRI – Sunday, April 24 marks the 26th anniversary of the
assassination of Professor Kazem Rajavi, a renowned defender of human rights in
Iran and elder brother of Iranian Resistance leader Massoud Rajavi, by a
terrorist hit squad of the mullahs’ regime. At the age of 56, Prof. Kazem Rajavi
held six doctorate degrees in the fields of law, political science, and
sociology from the universities of Paris and Geneva. In 1971 he established the
Swiss Society for Defense of Iranian Political Prisoners with the help of a
resident of Geneva by the name of Christian Grobet who later became head of
government advisors during the years 1986 to 1993. Kazem’s younger brother
Massoud Rajavi had been condemned to death on political charges by the Shah.
Kazem succeeded in commuting the sentence to life in prison. He was Iran's first
Ambassador to the United Nations headquarters in Geneva following the 1979
revolution. Shortly after his appointment, he resigned his post in protest to
the "repressive policies and terrorist activities of the ruling clerics in
Iran." He then intensified his campaign against mass executions, arbitrary
arrests, and torture carried out by Iran’s theocratic leadership. He became the
representative of the main opposition coalition National Council of Resistance
of Iran (NCRI) in Switzerland and at the UN in Geneva. In Geneva he was also a
university professor. His resolve in the struggle against the new regime that
systematically trampled upon human rights led to the appointment of a UN Special
Rapporteur for Iran and the first resolution on Iran at the UN Commission on
Human Rights in Geneva. Dr. Rajavi had been threatened with his life. In the
hall of the UN Headquarters, a diplomat-terrorist of the regime once shouted at
him: “We will kill you!”In 1986, then-Supreme Leader of the mullahs’ regime
Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa for Dr. Rajavi to be killed. On 24 April 1990,
he was gunned down in broad daylight by several agents of the Iranian regime’s
notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) as he was driving to his
home in Coppet, a village near Geneva. Dr. Rajavi's assassination required
enormous resources, extensive planning, and coordination among several of the
regime's organizations. After extensive investigations, Roland Chatelain, the
Swiss magistrate in charge of the case, and Swiss judicial and police officials
confirmed the role of Iran's government under Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and
the participation of thirteen official agents of the Iranian regime who had used
"service passports" to enter Switzerland for their plot. Swiss magistrates later
issued an international arrest warrant for a former Iranian intelligence
minister, Ali Fallahian. Fallahian and 13 Iranian diplomat-terrorists are wanted
on charges of murdering Dr. Rajavi.
IRAN: Ailing
political prisoner shown support from ex-Tehran University chancellor
Sunday, 24 April 2016/NCRI - Iranian physicist and political prisoner Omid
Kokabee who underwent surgery last week to remove his cancerous right kidney has
been given moral support by the former chancellor of the University of Tehran.
Mr. Kokabee, 34, and his relatives had repeatedly warned about his various
problematic health conditions, but the mullahs' regime systematically ignored
their warnings in the past five years that he has been behind bars. Human rights
groups say Mr. Kokabee is a prisoner of conscience held solely for his refusal
to work on military projects in Iran and as a result of spurious charges related
to his legitimate scholastic ties with academic institutions outside of Iran.
Following Mr. Kokabee’s surgery last Wednesday, Dr. Mohammad Maleki, the first
post-revolution Chancellor of Tehran University, in a video message denounced
his "inhumane" detention, which goes against "human rights."Dr. Maleki urged
young Iranians to "rise up and protest" such detentions of Iranian academics and
university students by the mullahs' regime. Mr. Kokabee had been pursuing
post-doctoral studies in the United States when he was arrested in January 2011
when he went to Iran to visit his family. He was held in solitary confinement
for 15 months and was subjected to prolonged interrogations, and pressured to
make “confessions.”In May 2012, after an unfair trial in the regime’s so-called
Revolutionary Court at which it is understood that no evidence was presented
against him, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having “connections with
a hostile government,” according to Amnesty International. His sentence was
upheld on appeal in August 2012.According to human rights groups, Iranian
authorities unduly delayed Mr. Kokabee’s access to medical treatment in the
past. In 2012, after an initial examination found that he had a tumor, Mr.
Kokabee experienced a long delay in getting permission to be transferred from a
prison health clinic to a hospital for critical medical examinations. In an open
letter written from prison in April 2013, Mr. Kokabee said: “During
interrogations which were conducted in solitary confinement, while all my
communication with my family and the outside world was cut off, and while I was
constantly being put under pressure and threats by receiving news about the
horrible physical and mental state of my family, I was asked again and again to
write up various versions of my personal history after 2005.”Omid Kokabee has
also said that since he graduated from university in 2005 he had been “invited
several times to work as a scientist and technical manager for military and
intelligence projects.” This included being offered admission to a PhD program
with full sponsorship by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. He declined all
invitations. Mr. Kokabee was awarded the Andrei Sakharov Prize by the American
Physical Society in 2013, for “his courage in refusing to use his physics
knowledge to work on projects that he deemed harmful to humanity, in the face of
extreme physical and psychological pressure.”
http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/human-rights/20238-iran-ailing-political-prisoner-shown-support-from-ex-tehran-university-chancellor
At Least 14 Dead in Regime,
Rebel Attacks in Syria's Aleppo
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 24/16/Rebel and regime bombardment in
Syria's Aleppo on Sunday killed at least 14 civilians, emergency workers and a
monitor said, on the third day of renewed violence in the battered city. Rebel
rocket fire on government-held parts of the northern city killed six civilians,
including a woman and two children, said the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights. And a barrage of government air strikes that began around midday on
Sunday left at least eight civilians dead. The strikes killed five people in a
fruit and vegetable market in the neighbourhood of Sakhur, said a member of
Aleppo's civil defence. Regime aerial bombardment left two civilians dead in the
district of Shaar and another in Bab al-Nayrab, the source added. Since a
partial truce came into force in Syria on February 27, Aleppo city has seen a
dramatic drop in air strikes and rocket fire. But government planes launched an
intense campaign over the city on Friday, killing 25 civilians that day and
another 12 on Saturday. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the escalating
violence in Aleppo and elsewhere meant the ceasefire had effectively collapsed.
In rebel-held neighbourhoods on Sunday, strained field hospitals were calling
for immediate donations of blood to respond to the emergency needs.
Opposition-run schools announced on Saturday they would shut indefinitely in
fear of air strikes. A coalition of rebel groups in Aleppo province on Saturday
evening said if the regime did not halt its attacks, "we will fully disengage
from the truce". The online statement, published in Arabic, said the
international community had 24 hours to put pressure on Damascus before rebels
would respond to the regime's "aggression". More than 270,000 people have been
killed since Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government
protests. Aleppo city, once Syria's commercial hub, split into rebel- and
regime-controlled halves in 2012.
Ten Wounded as Turkish Town
Hit by Syria Rocket Fire
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 24/16/Two rockets fired into Turkey from an
area of Syria controlled by the Islamic State group hit the border town of Kilis
on Sunday, leaving 10 people injured, Anatolia news agency said. In the last few
weeks, IS jihadists have repeatedly fired rockets at the town in the southeast
of the country -- the only place in Turkey where refugees from Syria's five-year
conflict now outnumber local Turks. On Monday, just such an attack left five
Syrians dead, including four children, when a rocket ripped through their home.
Turkey has responded to each of the strikes on Kilis by destroying the launching
positions of the jihadists with howitzer fire. Turkish officials have repeatedly
lauded the hospitality of people in Kilis towards Syrians as an example of how
Turks are hosting the 2.7 million Syrians who have fled their country's civil
war. On Saturday, after a visit to the region with top EU officials, Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu insisted once again that "Turkey will respond with
force" to attacks on its territory. Neither IS nor the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra
Front are included in a Syrian truce brokered by the United States and Russia
that came into force in February.
Washington has applauded Turkey's role in the anti-IS coalition but U.S.
officials on occasion have urged Ankara to do more.
Sending Troops to Syria Would
be 'Mistake', Obama Warns
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 24/16/U.S. President Barack Obama warned
Sunday that it would be a "mistake" to send Western troops into Syria to
overthrow the regime of President Bashar Assad. In an interview with the BBC, he
said the United States would continue strikes against the Islamic State group
while continuing efforts to broker a transition deal between the Assad regime
and his moderate Syrian opponents. "Syria has been a heart-breaking situation of
enormous complexity, and I don't think there are any simple solutions," Obama
said during his visit to London which ended Sunday.
"It would be a mistake for the United States, or Great Britain, or a combination
of Western states to send in ground troops and overthrow the Assad regime. "But
I do believe that we can apply international pressure to all the parties,
including Russia and Iran, who, essentially, are propping up Assad, as well as
those moderate oppositions that exist and may be fighting inside of Syria, to
sit down at the table and try to broker a transition. "Now, that's difficult,
and in the interim, we continue to strike ISIL targets in places like Raqqa, and
to try to isolate those portions of the country, and lock down those portions of
the country that are sending foreign fighters into Europe."At least 30 civilians
were killed Saturday in fighting in areas across Syria, threatening an
eight-week-old truce as peace talks in Geneva remain stalled. The truce,
brokered by Russia and the United States, had raised hopes that United
Nations-backed talks in Geneva this month will help resolve the five-year
conflict. "There's going to be a military component to this, to ensure that...
we're also engaging in the counter-terrorism activities that are necessary,"
Obama said. "But in order for us to solve the long-term problems in Syria, a
military solution alone -- and certainly us deploying ground troops -- is not
going to bring that about." More than 270,000 people have been killed since
Syria's conflict broke out in 2011.
Senior commander from Syria
rebel group killed
AFP, Beirut Sunday, 24 April 2016/A senior commander in Syria’s powerful
Islamist Ahrar al-Sham rebel group was killed Saturday night in a suicide
bombing in Idlib province, a monitoring group said. “Ahrar al-Sham chief of
staff Majed Hussein Al Sadeq was killed with three other fighters from the group
in a suicide attack against its headquarters in Binnish town,” northeast of
Idlib city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “An unknown person
parked his motorcycle near the headquarters then walked into a group of Ahrar
al-Sham fighters and detonated his explosive belt,” the observatory said.It was
unclear who was responsible for the attack. Sadeq, also known as Islam Abou
Hussein, was a Syrian army officer who defected to join the opposition. He held
several posts in Ahrar al-Sham before becoming its chief of staff. Ahrar al-Sham
is one of Syria’s most powerful rebel groups, according to experts. It is a
leading member of the Army of Conquest alliance that controls the northwest
province of Idlib along with Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
Obama says Syria ‘safe zone’ a practical problem
Agencies Sunday, 24 April 2016/US President Barack Obama said on Sunday it would
be very difficult to see how a so-called safe zone would work in Syria without a
large military commitment. “The issue surrounding a safe zone in Syrian
territory is not a matter of an ideological objection on my part,” Obama said at
a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “It’s not a matter of me
not wishing I could help and protect a whole bunch of people. It’s a very
practical issue about how do you do it?”Obama presented a number of questions
about such a zone, including what country will “put a bunch of ground troops
inside of Syria,” a country that has suffered five years of civil war. Obama
made his valedictory visit to Germany at the invitation of Merkel, a leader who
has become his primary European interlocutor and political kindred spirit. Obama
arrived in to Hanover for a final bilateral visit to a country that has long
been Europe's biggest economy, but has in modern times punched below its weight
politically, diplomatically and militarily. During Obama's seven years in
office, that dynamic has changed, with the US president making the German
chancellor, among European leaders at least, first among equals.
Both leaders have an approach to politics that is heavily analytical, leading
aides to talk about a relationship that is cerebral and without comparison."I
consider Angela one of my closest partners and also a friend," Obama told the
Bild newspaper, laying on the compliments on the eve of his trip."I've worked
with her longer and closer than any other world leader, and over the years I've
learned from her," he said. "She embodies many of the leadership qualities I
admire most. She's guided by both interests and values."Today, while the United
States has a "special relationship" with Britain and France is America's "oldest
ally", Germany has become Washington's "indispensable partner". Obama is
ostensibly visiting to attend the Hannover Messe, a trade fair that underscores
Germany's commercial prowess. He will touch down at 12:40pm (1040 GMT), jetting
in from London for a two-day visit that kicks off with talks with Merkel, a
joint press conference and a trip to the trade fair Sunday. It will wrap up
Monday with a keynote speech and a meeting with Merkel and the leaders of
France, Germany and Britain.For Obama, the trip will be an opportunity to
burnish his legacy and politically embrace Merkel, whose fortunes at home have
been hit by her handling of the migration crisis. Critics say her openness to
refugees only sped the vast flow of people coming from Syria and beyond. "I
believe that Chancellor Merkel's approach to the refugee crisis -- and that of
many Germans -- has been courageous," Obama said, voicing an opinion heard less
often in Germany than Merkel would like. On Saturday, Merkel said that Germany
is seeking the creation of "safe zones" to shelter refugees in Syria, an idea
Turkey has long championed in the face of UN caution.
Rocky road
Despite the diplomatic niceties, the relationship between Obama and Merkel has
also been rocky. They have frequently clashed, most notably over fiscal policy.
Merkel has backed austerity as the remedy to European sovereign debt crises,
while Obama came down firmly in favor of short-term spending to buy time and a
way out of the morass.Officials admit US-German relations hit a low when it
became known that the US government had been tapping Merkel's phone. That has
helped make the German public among the most skeptical of Obama's leadership in
Europe.According to the Pew Research Center, 45 percent of Germans have an
unfavorable view of the United States. But officials point to the Ukraine crisis
and the downing of flight MH17 as a turning point that helped both leaders begin
to work in tandem. Merkel, according to Obama, "has been essential to
maintaining European unity against Russia's aggression against Ukraine." AFP /
German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks with refugee children at a preschool,
during a visit to a refugee camp on the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep. In
return, his visit will likely focus heavily on an issue that can help Merkel
domestically -- trade. Obama will use the trip as an opportunity to press for a
vast US-EU trade deal which the White House still hopes to agree or progress
before Obama leaves office in January. "Germany is not of any military use to
the United States: it pays too little into NATO and does too little militarily,"
said Josef Braml, an analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations."Where
they take us seriously is as a European leadership power, and an economic power.
And in that sense, we are not just a partner but a competitor. That's why they
spied on us." Although Merkel may look to deepen trade to boost job growth, some
sectors of the German public remain skeptical. Tens of thousands of opponents of
a proposed trade deal poured onto Hanover's streets Saturday to demonstrate
their distaste for the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Above all, Obama will use the visit to try to massage his legacy in Europe,
giving a speech on Monday that will, for posterity, frame his vision of
transatlantic relations.(AFP and Reuters)
Obama Embracing Ally Merkel
on Farewell Trip to Germany
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 24/16/U.S. President Barack Obama arrived
Sunday in Germany where he is due to promote plans for a transatlantic trade
pact along with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Air Force One landed in the northern
city of Hanover to a ceremonial guard welcome as a short burst of hail hit
before giving way to bright sunshine. The U.S. president will hold talks with
Merkel on what is Obama's fifth and last official visit to Germany. The two
leaders are then set to open what is billed as the world's largest industrial
technology fair. Obama's trip will wrap up Monday with a keynote speech in which
he is expected to frame his vision of transatlantic relations, and a meeting
with Merkel as well as the leaders of Britain, France and Italy.
Obama urges
reinstatement of Syria ceasefire
Sun 24 Apr 2016/NNA - US President Barack Obama made a plea on Sunday for
warring parties in Syria to return to peace talks and "reinstate" a ceasefire,
as he defended a refusal to establish a safe zone in the country."I spoke to
(Russian) President Vladimir Putin early last week to try to make sure that we
could reinstate the cessation of hostilities," he told a news conference in
Germany, as an increasingly troubled ceasefire was threatened by regime and
rebel bombardments that claimed 26 lives Sunday. Obama also argued that
establishing a safe zone "is not a matter of an ideological objection on my
part" but that "as a practical matter, sadly, it is very difficult to see how it
would operate short of us essentially being willing to militarily take over a
big chunk of that country."-AFP
Differences Persist as Yemen
Peace Talks Enter 4th Day
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 24/16/U.N.-brokered Yemeni peace talks in
Kuwait entered a fourth day Sunday with government and Shiite Huthi rebel
delegations still far from reaching an agreement to end 13 months of war. The
delegations resumed "talks and started the plenary session," Charbel Raji,
spokesman for the U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, told Agence France Presse
without providing further details. Sources close to the talks said on Saturday
that the two sides had failed to reach an understanding on the need to firm up a
fragile ceasefire in place since April 11. Ould Cheikh Ahmed acknowledged the
negotiations were difficult but expressed hopes for progress. "The atmosphere of
the talks is promising and there is common ground to build on in order to
reconcile differences," the U.N. envoy said in a statement issued late Saturday.
The delegates had agreed to appoint two officials, one from each side, to make
recommendations on how to sustain the ceasefire, he added. But the two sides
differ on priorities for the ceasefire. The government delegation said overnight
that the ceasefire should include opening safe passages to all besieged areas
and releasing political prisoners as well as those abducted as part of
confidence-building measures. The Iran-backed Huthis are demanding an immediate
halt to air strikes that a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out since March
2015 in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. "The continuity of air
strikes by targeting roads, bridges and homes like what happened yesterday...
affirms that the announcement of cessation of military actions is baseless,"
said Mohamed Abdulsalam, the Huthi spokesman and head of delegation. This meant
that "the path of negotiations under aggression will not be different from
previous rounds," Abdulsalam wrote on Facebook, in reference to the two failed
rounds held in Switzerland late last year. The two sides also differ on the way
to tackle other central issues. The government wants the discussions to start
with the issue of a Huthi pullout from areas including the capital Sanaa and
relinquishing heavy arms and missiles.
The Huthis want the political process and the establishment of a national unity
government to be first, sources close to the talks told AFP. The negotiations in
Kuwait opened late Thursday after the delayed arrival of representatives of the
Huthi rebels and allied forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Clashes between Iraqi Kurds,
Turkmen Kill Nine
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 24/16/Kurdish peshmerga forces and Turkmen
Shiite paramilitaries were Sunday engaged in clashes that have killed nine
people in a flashpoint town and closed the highway to Baghdad, officials said.
Tuz Khurmatu, part of a swathe of territory claimed by both Iraq's autonomous
Kurdish region and Baghdad, has been divided between Turkmen and Kurds since
fighting erupted between the two sides last year. A peshmerga brigadier general
and another fighter and two members of Turkmen forces were among the nine people
killed, said Shallal Abdul Baban, the Kurdish official responsible for the area.
A colonel in the Tuz Khurmatu police gave the same toll, and said that the
highway to Baghdad was closed by forces involved in the fighting. The clashes
between the peshmerga and the Turkmen, who belong to a militia umbrella
organisation known as the Hashed al-Shaabi, began around midnight and continued
into Sunday, officials said. Karim Shukur, an official from the Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan party, said the trouble began when a member of the Hashed al-Shaabi
threw a grenade at one of its headquarters in Tuz Khurmatu, wounding peshmerga
fighters. The Hashed al-Shaabi meanwhile blamed the Kurds for the unrest, saying
in a statement that the clashes started after Kurdish forces targeted one of
their headquarters in the town. Both the peshmerga and the Turkmen fighters are
battling the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran large areas north and
west of Baghdad in 2014. But Kurdish forces and the Hashed al-Shaabi are vying
for influence in some areas, a contest that has led to violence in Tuz Khurmatu.
The fighting last November began as a dispute at a checkpoint that escalated
into clashes inside Tuz Khurmatu. Dozens of homes were burned, and the town has
been split between Kurdish and Turkmen areas, with neighbourhood minority
residents moving back across the ethnic divide. Baghdad turned to the Hashed al-Shaabi,
which is dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias, to help stem the jihadists'
2014 advance and later push them back. Kurdish forces also battled the jihadists
in the north, but have largely fought independently of federal troops.
Syria-born Greek Mayor Takes
Charge of 'Lucky' Refugees
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/April 24/16/On a long beach framed by a golden
Ionian Sea sunset, a group of Syrian boys shout for joy as they race across the
sand, the horrors of war and exile they have witnessed briefly forgotten. As the
sun finally sets, children make a beeline for a nearby square and mothers with
prams step out for an evening stroll. The latest residents of a previously
abandoned summer resort -- extensively looted as a result of the Greek economic
crisis -- these Syrians consider themselves among the "lucky" ones. "I spent two
weeks in a tent, in the water at Idomeni," said Wis Najjar, referring to the
slum-like camp on the Greek-Macedonian border where about 10,000 people remain
stranded since the closure of the migrant route through the Balkans in February.
"Here it's very nice. The locals help us, even though they are in need
themselves," the 53-year-old technician from Aleppo added. The LM Village
resort, partly owned by the local municipality of Kyllini, some 280 kilometres
(170 miles) west of Athens, is under the care of mayor Nampil Morant, a
pathologist from Homs. Morant, who has lived in the area for 25 years, is the
first naturalised Greek of Syrian origin elected to office.
"It was the least I could do for Syrian refugees," said Morant, 53, who was
elected mayor in 2014 after serving three terms on the municipal council. "Every
day we saw the poor living conditions (in the makeshift camps), the rain, mud
and the cold. I could not remain impartial, not when there is a facility that
has been closed for the past six years and could offer temporary shelter," he
told Agence France Presse. For now, each of the resort's small apartments houses
two families with children, the youngest a baby girl born in the area's general
hospital a few days ago. - We were 'lucky' -"They said, this is another camp and
if you want to go, you can choose this camp. (We were) lucky," says Tarek Al-Felo,
a grizzled 42-year-old from Damascus, who was approached by Greek officials at
the port of Piraeus last month after spending two weeks there. Like many here,
he has seen the squalor of makeshift camps at Piraeus and Idomeni. "It's better
than other camps. And people here are good people. The mayor comes here every
day and asks about people here," said Felo, who used to run a restaurant in
Damascus.Felo's wife and children now share an apartment with another Syrian
family from Idlib who they met on the road in Turkey. He says it took his family
four months to reach Greece, including two months just to get out of Syria,
travelling by night to avoid jihadist patrols.
Of the 341 people at LM Village, 210 are children, over half of them babies and
toddlers. There are 57 women, including a handful who are pregnant. The resort
has an outdoor basketball court, a large playground and a square, and there are
now plans for a library, said camp supervisor Yiorgos Angelopoulos. "This is an
open hospitality centre and we intend to allocate two municipal buses to take
them into town," said Angelopoulos, who is the Syrians' main contact with the
outside world. As he makes his rounds around the resort, refugees come out of
their homes to make requests for supplies such as washing powder, and small
children run to hug him. Local doctors visit three times a week and Red Cross
staff regularly arrive with donations. "At first there were some negative
reactions (locally) but they were overcome when it became apparent that these
people are peaceful... and especially when they saw the children," Angelopoulos
added. - Germany 'no paradise' -Angelopoulos is now taking stock of the
refugees' former professions in order to find work for them locally. Adeb Ferzat,
a 40-year-old pharmacist, wants to go to Germany where his 15-year-old son is
enrolled in the academy at football giants Bayern Munich. "We have a lawyer in
Germany helping to make the arrangements," he said through Najjar, the camp's
only Greek speaker having lived in Greece for four years. Ferzat acknowledged
that running a pharmacy would not be possible until he learns the language but
he stressed: "I also know how to make clothes." Felo, who in March submitted his
family's request for relocation to another EU country, however, is not pinning
his hopes on Germany. "Germany may be the dream of paradise of all refugees, but
to me it's not. I want a safe place, Germany is not a paradise," he said.
26 wounded as
Turkish town hit by Syria rocket fire
By Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 24 April 2016/Three rockets fired
into Turkey from an ISIS-controlled Syrian area hit the border town of Kilis on
Sunday, leaving in total one person killed and 26 others injured, media reports
said. The person was killed and 10 more wounded when the third rocket hit Kilis,
Hurriyet Daily News said on is website. Kilis, across the border from an
ISIS-controlled area of Syria, has been repeatedly hit by rocket fire in recent
weeks. Earlier on Sunday two rockets hit houses not far from the town center,
wounding 16 people. One of the rockets hit the roof of a house in the Okcular
neighborhood while the other hit a backyard. Six of the wounded were Syrian.
Residents marched on the governor’s office in Kilis in protest, only to be
dispersed by police, the Hurriyet Daily said, adding that marches and protests
had been banned for a month by the city’s officials. In the last few weeks, ISIS
militants have repeatedly fired rockets at the town in the southeast of the
country -- the only place in Turkey where refugees from Syria’s five-year
conflict now outnumber local Turks. On Monday, just such an attack left five
Syrians dead, including four children, when a rocket ripped through their home.
Turkey has responded to each of the strikes on Kilis by destroying the launching
positions of the jihadists with howitzer fire. Turkish officials have repeatedly
lauded the hospitality of people in Kilis towards Syrians as an example of how
Turks are hosting the 2.7 million Syrians who have fled their country’s civil
war. On Saturday, after a visit to the region with top EU officials, Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu insisted once again that “Turkey will respond with
force” to attacks on its territory. Neither ISIS nor the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra
Front are included in a Syrian truce brokered by the United States and Russia
that came into force in February. Washington has applauded Turkey’s role in the
anti-ISIS coalition but US officials on occasion have urged Ankara to do
more.(With AFP)
Israel frees youngest Palestinian prisoner
The Associated Press, Hebron, West Bank Sunday, 24 April 2016/A 12-year-old
Palestinian girl, imprisoned by Israel after she confessed to planning a
stabbing attack on Israelis in a West Bank settlement, returned home Sunday
after she was freed early following an appeal. Dima al-Wawi is believed to be
the youngest female Palestinian ever imprisoned. Al-Wawi was greeted by about 80
relatives at her family’s house in Halhoul, a village near Hebron, a West Bank
city that has been a focal point of violence. Relatives decorated the house with
balloons and posters. Banners by the Islamic militant group Hamas along with the
Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas adorned the walls. “I am
happy to be out. Prison is bad,” al-Wawi told The Associated Press. “During my
time in prison I missed my classmates and my friends and family.”According to
court documents provided by the military, al-Wawi approached the West Bank
settlement of Carmei Tsur on Feb. 9 with a knife hidden under a shirt. A
security guard ordered her to halt, and a resident instructed her to lie on the
ground and told her to give up the knife, which she did. An amateur video clip
shown on Israeli TV showed the resident asking the girl, who was wearing her
school uniform, whether she had come to kill Jews, and she said yes. She later
pleaded guilty to attempted manslaughter in a plea bargain and was sentenced to
4½ months in prison. She was freed early after an Her case put Israel’s
military justice system in a tough spot because of her young age. Israel
captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, and Palestinian
residents there are subject to a system of military law that can sentence
suspects as young as 12 to prison. By contrast, Israeli settlers in the West
Bank, as well as Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel, are subject to Israeli
civil law, which does not allow anyone under 14 to go to jail. The incident came
amid seven months of violence in which Palestinians have killed 28 Israelis and
two Americans in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks in Israel and the
West Bank. At least 190 Palestinians have died from Israeli fire. Israel says
most were attackers, and the rest died in clashes with Israeli security
forces.Many of the Palestinian attackers have been teenagers or in their early
20s.Israel blames the attacks on incitement by Palestinian religious and
political leaders that is compounded on social media sites that glorify and
encourage attacks. Palestinian officials say it is the result of despair living
under Israeli occupation and frustration over the prospect of ever reaching
statehood.
Migrants break through
Macedonia border
AFP, Gevgelija, Macedonia Sunday, 24 April 2016/Several dozen migrants managed
to illegally cross from Greece into Macedonia on Saturday - a border that has
been shut since February, an AFP photographer reported. The photographer saw the
group in the Macedonian town of Gevgelija, across from Idomeni in Greece where
more than 10,000 migrants have been stuck for weeks in grim conditions after a
series of border closures on the Balkan migrant route. The photographer, who was
travelling with a group of journalists, saw a person “jump out of the bush” in
front of his vehicle. “Then I saw two or three others, then around 50 resting in
the bush,” he said, estimating there were “many others” following this group.
The migrants would have made a three-hour journey from Idomeni including the
crossing of a river. The group, including “many women, children, even a woman
carrying a cat,” then disappeared from the journalists’ sight, the photographer
said, adding that they “looked scared” and “tired”. In the Macedonian capital
Skopje, police denied any knowledge of the incident. “I have no such
information,” police spokesman Toni Angelovski told AFP. But he added: “We have
these kind of illegal attempts to cross (into the country) on a daily basis, and
police are taking measures to protect the border.”
Some 54,000 people, many of them fleeing the war in Syria, have been stranded on
Greek territory since the closure of the migrant route through the Balkans in
February.
More than 10,000 are in the overcrowded camp in Idomeni, separated from
Macedonia with a double barbed wire fence. Groups have intermittently tried to
cross the border, where they face the Macedonian police and army. Two weeks ago
some 260 refugees were injured when Macedonian police fired tear gas in a bid to
prevent a large group from storming the border. Last month, three Afghans
drowned trying to wade through the river and cross into Macedonia, while another
1,500 or so who followed them made it across the border - only to be rounded up
and sent back by troops.
Describing the refugees, the photographer said he was struck by the tension on
their faces, but added they did not seem to be concerned in being spotted by the
journalists.
Watch: The worst exhausting Middle Eastern refuge since decades.
They continued their journey without saying where they were going, but were
probably heading north towards Serbia, the photographer added.
Last month a Macedonian army spokesman told AFP that the police and military
“daily discover 50 to 300 illegal migrants who are trying to enter into the
country or break the fence” and send them back to Greece.
Macedonia, a non-EU and non-NATO country of two million people, has deployed its
army at the border since August last year to control the influx of refugees and
other migrants hoping to start new lives in northern Europe.
Serbia votes with PM calling
for European future
AFP | Belgrade Sunday, 24 April 2016/Serbians voted Sunday in a general election
that is likely to return pro-European Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to power,
but also give a voice in parliament to the pro-Russian far right. While Vucic’s
nominally conservative Serbian Progressive Party is projected to win about half
of the votes, resurgent ultra-nationalists who want the Balkan country to deepen
its alliance with Russia, instead of Europe, are also expected to win seats.
Casting his vote in a Belgrade suburb, Vucic said he was “not going to make any
compromise” with right-wing parties and expressed hope that voters would choose
a “European path”.“I’m almost certain that we’ll carry on our EU integration
process,” he said. Vucic called the early election saying he needed a clear
mandate to press ahead with the reforms required to join the European Union.
Serbia, home to seven million people, opened the first formal stages in EU
accession negotiations in December, although Brussels has said there will be no
further enlargement of the bloc until 2020. But critics see the vote as an
attempt by Vucic to consolidate power, expressing concerns about his
authoritarian tendencies including curbs on media freedom. The 46-year-old
premier was once a staunch ultra-nationalist, but has remodelled himself as a
pro-European reformist.The election is Serbia’s third in four years and
enthusiasm appeared in short supply as voters queued at polling stations, which
are due to close at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT). First results are expected before
midnight. “We have elections too often,” said retired Jelica Nikolic, 68, in
Belgrade, who said she and her husband Radomir were voting more out of duty than
conviction. In the southwestern city of Novi Pazar, 40-year-old Edib Mahmutovic
said “life is hard” and hoped the election winners would “create new jobs that
enable us to stay here and not have to look for a better life elsewhere in
Europe”. Vucic’s current Socialist coalition partners are trailing him in second
place in opinion polls, while fragmented centrist and liberal opposition groups
are expected to just make the threshold for entering the 250-seat parliament.
‘Renounce the EU’
Pro-Russian far-right groups are expected between them to take 10 to 15 percent
of the vote after several years without seats in parliament. All eyes are on
ultra-nationalist Vojislav Seselj, leader of the Serbian Radical Party, who was
recently acquitted by UN judges of war crimes charges arising from the 1990s
Balkan conflicts. As he voted in the capital, the 61-year-old said the Radicals
“could form a coalition with parties that renounce the European Union and favour
integration with Russia”.Although a victory is out of reach for his party,
Serbia’s low living standards and high unemployment, plus Western demands to
streamline the inefficient state sector, may endear nationalists to some
discontented voters. “Serbia will be safe only if it aligns with Moscow, which
has always helped us and never bombed us,” Seselj said at his final rally in the
northern city of Novi Sad, referring to the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia during
the Kosovo war.As a fellow Slavic and largely Orthodox Christian country, Russia
is seen as a supportive big brother figure by many in Serbia, and Vucic treads a
fine line in his foreign friendships.
“Of course we’re preserving our traditional ties with all our friends in the
East,” he said as he voted.
South Africa’s president
praises 1979 revolution during Iran trip
AFP, Tehran Sunday, 24 April 2016/South Africa’s embattled President Jacob Zuma
praised Iran’s 1979 revolution Sunday at the start of a three-day state visit
which he said could “dramatically expand trade” with the Islamic republic. The
overthrow of a US-backed Shah was a source of encouragement as black South
Africans fought against apartheid, Zuma said at a press conference with
President Hassan Rowhani. With international sanctions against Iran now lifted
under its nuclear deal with world powers business activity is likely to
increase. “Iran occupies a special place in our struggle against apartheid,”
Zuma said, noting how Tehran cut ties with South Africa when it was under white
rule, only resuming relations in 1994 after Nelson Mandela was elected as its
first black president. Mandela, who served one term before voluntarily standing
down in 1999, visited Tehran before his election and soon after leaving office.
“South Africans were inspired by the 1979 revolution, which showed that
emancipation is possible, whatever the odds,” said Zuma, the first serving South
African president to visit since. Having signed eight cooperation agreements
ranging from energy development to business insurance, Zuma said the nuclear
deal was an opportunity to deepen commercial links. “The challenge is to
dramatically expand trade volumes,” he added. Rowhani, whose government in
January implemented last summer’s nuclear deal with Britain, China, France,
Russia and the United States plus Germany, paid tribute to Mandela, who died
aged 95 in 2013. “Let us cherish the memory of the late Nelson Mandela,” after
whom a street is named in Tehran, Rowhani said. “He is so very much revered by
both the South African and the Iranian people.”Rowhani, who Zuma confirmed has
been invited to visit South Africa, said he would like to see direct flights
opening up from Tehran. Zuma’s trip comes as he is under fire and accused of
corruption at home. Julius Malema, the firebrand head of South Africa’s radical
opposition Economic Freedom Fighters, warned that he could seek to remove Zuma’s
African National Congress (ANC) government “through the barrel of a gun”.
Death toll from Ecuador
earthquake surpasses 650
Reuters Sunday, 24 April 2016/The death toll from Ecuador’s devastating 7.8
magnitude earthquake last week has risen to 654 people, the country’s emergency
management authority said on Saturday. Last Saturday’s quake, the worst in
nearly seven decades, injured around 16,600 people and left 58 missing along the
country’s ravaged Pacific coast. One hundred and thirteen people were rescued
from damaged buildings. “These have been sad days for the homeland,” President
Rafael Correa said during his weekly television broadcast earlier on Saturday.
“The country is in crisis.”Several strong tremors and more than 700 aftershocks
have continued to shake the country since the major quake, sparking momentary
panic but little additional damage. Tremors are expected to continue for several
weeks. With close to 7,000 buildings destroyed, more than 25,000 people were
living in shelters. Some 14,000 security personnel were keeping order in
quake-hit areas, with only sporadic looting reported. Survivors in the quake
zone were receiving food, water and medicine from the government and scores of
foreign aid workers, although Correa has acknowledged that bad roads delayed aid
reaching some communities. Correa’s leftist government, facing mammoth
rebuilding at a time of greatly reduced oil revenues for the OPEC country, has
said it would temporarily increase some taxes, offer assets for sale and
possibly issue bonds abroad to fund reconstruction. Congress will begin debate
on the tax proposal on Tuesday. Correa has estimated damage at $2 billion to $3
billion. Lower oil revenue has already left the country of 16 million people
facing near-zero growth and lower investment. The country’s private banking
association said on Saturday its member banks would defer payments on credit
cards, loans and mortgages for clients in the quake zone for three months, to
help reconstruction efforts.
Strengthening ties with Saudi
Arabia is priority, says new Italian envoy
Saudi Gazette, Jeddah Sunday, 24 April 2016/The Italian Cultural Center held a
social event at its premises on Wednesday to honor and welcome the newly
appointed Ambassador of Italy in Riyadh, Luca Ferrari, and the Vogue Italian
Delegation who is in Jeddah to host the three-day fashion extravaganza “Jeddah
Vogue Fashion Experience” in collaboration with luxury retailer Rubaiyat.
According to Vogue Italia editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani, this initiative builds
on Vogue Italia’s deep commitment to promote new fashion talents, knowing how
important it is to offer them concrete international platforms to present and
advance their creativity. The event brought together prominent members of the
fashion industry, including local fashion designers and stylists. Speaking on
the occasion, Ferrari said relations between Italy and Saudi Arabia have been
strong and he is keen on working to further stabilize the economic and political
relations between governments of both countries. He explained that there are a
large number of Italian companies that have strong presence in the Saudi market
and extensively collaborate with Saudi companies to build infrastructure and
petrochemical factories in major cities across the country. For instance, Salini
Impregilo, a well-known Italian company, built Riyadh’s Kingdom Tower and is
currently working on Riyadh’s Subway project. “It’s time to establish closer
business ties and invite more specialized Italian companies to work on upcoming
projects in Saudi Arabia. Similarly, we have plans to take Saudi businessmen to
Rome and Milan to forge business partnerships between both countries,” he said.
Ferrari said he would also take concrete steps to boost Italian tourism, the
main gateway for which are visas. “We issue multiple tourist visas for long
durations and we are very open to issue visas to Saudi citizens. Currently, we
issue 100,000 visas a year to Saudis for tourism and business,” he said. He
added that building tourist ties work both ways, hence he also wants to bring
Italian tourists to Saudi Arabia and has been assured by the authorities that
Saudi Arabia will start issuing tourist visas very soon. “Saudi Arabia has some
very attractive tourist spots, and I’d definitely encourage Italians to explore
them. This would increase flow of tourists on both sides.”Expressing thoughts
about the Vogue Fashion Experience, the Italian ambassador said Saudi women
truly understand beauty, are sophisticated and have been fond of Italian fashion
for decades, and one of the key goals of the historic event is to collaborate
between educational institutions between Saudi Arabia and Italy. “This event is
very special and represents a strong partnership between Italy and Rubaiyat who
are focusing energies to build a new generation of Saudi fashion designers,” he
said, adding that giving an international exposure and unique opportunity to
Saudi fashion designers to visit Italy and learn fashion is the next level of
building educational relations between both countries. Ferrari sighted an
example of Dolce and Gabbana, the well-known Italian brand, which has launched
an incredible abaya collection, taking inspiration from abaya designers in
Jeddah, where people have a very strong sense of fashion.
Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports
And News published on April 25/16
Turkey Blackmails Europe on
Visa-Free Travel
Soeren Kern/ Gatestone Institute/April 24/16
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7914/turkey-visa-free-travel
The European Union
now finds itself in a classic catch-22 situation. Large numbers of Muslim
migrants will flow to Europe regardless of whether or not the EU approves the
visa waiver for Turkey.
"If visa requirements are lifted completely, each of these persons could buy a
cheap plane ticket to any German airport, utter the word 'asylum,' and trigger a
years-long judicial process with a good chance of ending in a residency permit."
— German analyst Andrew Hammel.
In their haste to stanch the rush of migrants, European officials effectively
allowed Turkey to conflate the two very separate issues of a) uncontrolled
migration into Europe and b) an end to visa restrictions for Turkish nationals.
"Why should a peaceful, stable, prosperous country like Germany import from some
remote corner of some faraway land a violent ethnic conflict which has nothing
whatsoever to do with Germany and which 98% Germans do not understand or care
about?" — German analyst Andrew Hammel.
"Democracy, freedom and the rule of law.... For us, these words have absolutely
no value any longer." — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey has threatened to renege on a landmark deal to curb illegal migration to
the European Union if the bloc fails to grant visa-free travel to Europe for
Turkey's 78 million citizens by the end of June.
If Ankara follows through on its threat, it would reopen the floodgates and
allow potentially millions of migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to
flow from Turkey into the European Union.
Under the terms of the EU-Turkey deal, which entered into effect on March 20,
Turkey agreed to take back migrants and refugees who illegally cross the Aegean
Sea from Turkey to Greece. In exchange, the European Union agreed to resettle up
to 72,000 Syrian refugees living in Turkey, and pledged up to 6 billion euros
($6.8 billion) in aid to Turkey during the next four years.
European officials also promised to restart Turkey's stalled EU membership talks
by the end of July 2016, and to fast-track visa-free access for Turkish
nationals to the Schengen (open-bordered) passport-free zone by June 30.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) has boasted that he is proud of
blackmailing EU leaders, including European Commission President Jean-Claude
Juncker (right), into granting Turkish citizens visa-free access to the EU and
paying Turkey billions of euros.
To qualify for the visa waiver, Turkey has until April 30 to meet 72 conditions.
These include: bringing the security features of Turkish passports up to EU
standards; sharing information on forged and fraudulent documents used to travel
to the EU and granting work permits to non-Syrian migrants in Turkey.
The European Commission, the administrative arm of the European Union, said it
would issue a report on May 4 on whether Turkey adequately has met all of the
conditions to qualify for visa liberalization.
During a hearing at the European Parliament on April 21, Marta Cygan, a director
in the Commission's migration and home affairs unit, revealed that to date
Ankara has satisfied only 35 of the 72 conditions. This implies that Turkey is
unlikely to meet the other 37 conditions by the April 30 deadline, a window of
fewer than ten days.
According to Turkish officials, however, Turkey is fulfilling all of its
obligations under the EU deal and the onus rests on the European Union to
approve visa liberalization — or else.
Addressing the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on April 19, Turkish Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey has now reduced the flow of migrants
to Greece to an average of 60 a day, compared to several thousand a day at the
height of the migrant crisis in late 2015. Davutoglu went on to say that this
proves that Turkey has fulfilled its end of the deal and that Ankara will no
longer honor the EU-Turkey deal if the bloc fails to deliver visa-free travel by
June 30.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has insisted that Turkey must
meet all 72 conditions for visa-free travel and that the EU will not water down
its criteria. But European officials — under intense pressure to keep the
migrant deal with Turkey alive — will be tempted to cede to Turkish demands.
EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on April 20 conceded that for
the EU it is not a question of the number of conditions, but rather "how quickly
the process is going on." He added: "I believe that at the end, if we continue
working like this, most of the benchmarks will be met."
European officials alone are to blame for allowing themselves to be blackmailed
in this way. In their haste to stanch the rush of migrants to Europe, they
effectively allowed Turkey to conflate the two very separate issues of a)
uncontrolled migration into Europe and b) an end to visa restrictions for
Turkish nationals.
The original criteria for the visa waiver were established in December 2013 —
more than two years before the EU-Turkey deal — by means of the so-called Visa
Liberalization Dialogue and the accompanying Readmission Agreement. In it,
Turkey agrees to take back third-country nationals who, after having transiting
through Turkey, have entered the EU illegally.
By declaring that the visa waiver conditions are no longer binding because the
flow of migrants to Greece has been reduced, Turkish officials, negotiating like
merchants in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, are running circles around the hapless
European officials.
Or, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently proclaimed: "The European
Union needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the European Union."
The European Union now finds itself in a classic Catch-22 situation. Large
numbers of Muslim migrants will flow to Europe regardless of whether or not the
EU approves the visa waiver.
Critics of visa liberalization fear that millions of Turkish nationals may end
up migrating to Europe. Indeed, many analysts believe that President Erdogan
views the visa waiver as an opportunity to "export" Turkey's "Kurdish Problem"
to Germany.
Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Söder, for example, worries that due to
Erdogan's persecution of Kurds in Turkey, millions may take advantage of the
visa waver to flee to Germany. "We are importing an internal Turkish conflict,"
he warned, adding: "In the end, fewer migrants may arrive by boat, but more will
arrive by airplane."
In an insightful essay, German analyst Andrew Hammel writes: "Let's do the math.
There are currently 16 million Turkish citizens of Kurdish descent in Turkey.
There is a long history of discrimination by Turkish governments against this
ethnic minority, including torture, forced displacement, and other repressive
measures. The current conservative-nationalist Turkish government is fighting an
open war against various Kurdish rebel groups, both inside and outside Turkey.
"This means that under German law as it is currently being applied by the ruling
coalition in the real world (not German law on the books), there are probably
something like 5-8 million Turkish Kurds who might have a plausible claim for
asylum or subsidiary protection. That's just a guess, the real number could be
higher, but probably not much lower.
"If visa requirements are lifted completely, each of these persons could buy a
cheap plane ticket to any German airport, utter the word 'asylum,' and trigger a
years-long judicial process with a good chance of ending in a residency permit."
Hammel continues: "There are already 800,000 Kurds living in Germany. As
migration researchers know, existing kin networks in a destination country
massively increase the likelihood and scope of migration.... As Turkish Kurds
are likely to arrive speaking no German and with limited job skills, just like
current migrants, where is the extra 60-70 billion euros/year [10 billion euros/year
for every one million migrants] going to come from to provide them all with
housing, food, welfare, medical care, education and German courses?
And finally, "the most important, most fundamental, most urgent question of
all":
"Why should a peaceful, stable, prosperous country like Germany import from some
remote corner of some faraway land a violent ethnic conflict which has nothing
whatsoever to do with Germany and which 98% Germans do not understand or care
about?"
Turkish-Kurdish violence is now commonplace in Germany, which is home to around
three million people of Turkish origin — roughly one in four of whom are Kurds.
German intelligence officials estimate that about 14,000 of these Kurds are
active supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant group that
has been fighting for Kurdish independence since 1974.
On April 10, hundreds of Kurds and Turks clashed in Munich and dozens fought in
Cologne. Also on April 10, four people were injured when Kurds and Turks fought
in Frankfurt. On March 27, nearly 40 people were arrested after Kurds attacked a
demonstration of around 600 Turkish protesters in the Bavarian town of
Aschaffenburg.
On September 11, 2015, dozens of Kurds and Turks clashed in Bielefeld. On
September 10, more than a thousand Kurds and Turks fought in Berlin. Also on
September 10, several hundred Kurds and Turks fought in Frankfurt.
On September 3, more than 100 Kurds and Turks clashed in Remscheid. On August
17, Kurds attacked a Turkish mosque in Berlin-Kreuzberg. In October 2014,
hundreds of Kurds and Turks clashed at the main train station in Munich.
In an essay for the Financial Times titled "The EU Sells Its Soul to Strike a
Deal with Turkey," columnist Wolfgang Münchau wrote:
"The deal with Turkey is as sordid as anything I have ever seen in modern
European politics. On the day that EU leaders signed the deal, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, the Turkish president, gave the game away: 'Democracy, freedom and the
rule of law.... For us, these words have absolutely no value any longer.' At
that point the European Council should have ended the conversation with Ahmet
Davutoglu, the Turkish prime minister, and sent him home. But instead, they made
a deal with him — money and a lot more in return for help with the refugee
crisis."
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is
also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios
Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.
His first book, Global Fire, will be out in 2016.
© 2016 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. No part of the Gatestone
website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without
the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
What is Putin’s
next ambitious gambit in the Middle East?
Dr. Azeem Ibrahim/Al Arabiya/April 24/16
Russia’s President Putin has stomped his authority on the Syrian war. It was not
pretty, and it was not clean. But it seems to have gotten him everything he
could have wanted out of the conflict. And it looks like he is not about to stop
there. I have made the point many times before that Obama’s approach to the
Middle East has left a gaping power vacuum in the region, into which Russia and
Iran are moving, while the Saudis and Israel are getting increasingly insecure
about what happens next. But Russia’s next gambit is truly ambitious: he seems
intent to win over public opinion on the Arab Street. At an Arab League summit
in Egypt last month he has made a strong commitment to the cause of Palestinian
Statehood. This in stark contrast to the US’s attitude of unconditional support
for Israel, even in times such as now when there is no love lost between the
Israelis and an obviously frustrated President Obama.
Getting his hands dirty
So far Putin has two things going for him. The first is an obvious willingness
to get his hands dirty on issues in the Middle East while the US continues to be
extremely squeamish about getting dragged into the region’s problems. The most
President Obama would do in the region is throw drone-bombs at a raging fire.
And given the extremely low appetite for further engagement in US public opinion
after the Iraq debacle, his successor in the presidency, whoever they may be,
will probably continue with the same policy regardless of how hawkish they are
sounding in the election campaign.
It cannot be denied that Putin has been successful in a Syrian intervention
which most observers (including myself) thought would be a catastrophic mistake.
The second is a track-record of success. It cannot be denied that Putin has been
successful in a Syrian intervention which most observers (including myself)
thought would be a catastrophic mistake. But whether this charm offensive will
actually work is another thing altogether. One cannot wade into the Middle East
at the moment without stepping on some sectarian tails. Both of Russia’s allies
in the region are hated regimes: Iran and Syria, and together they have now, as
they have historically, aligned against the power interests who were the
traditional US allies in the region, most notably, the Saudis, Egypt and
Jordanians. Now it is all very nice for Putin to go to the Arab League summit
and talk about the single issue on which all of them can agree. But most Gulf
member countries in attendance will have probably found it difficult to gloss
over the fact that Putin was still bombing their proxies in northern Syria.
Still, Russia and the Saudis at least have found common ground on some issues
recently: most notably, the oil deal. So perhaps there is some scope for Russia
to wiggle its way into the graces of the Sunni Arab world. And if we look beyond
the regimes and consider the opinions of the man on the street, they are surely
even more likely to respond well to these overtures. But I don’t see quite how
this is going to materialise into much tangible benefit for Putin – unless he
performs some kind of miracle where he delivers statehood for the Palestinians
by himself where all others have failed, Gulf states will continue to have every
reason to be weary of any Russian involvement in the region. Even if the US were
to completely abandon the region to its fate, it simply does not follow
naturally that everyone else would neatly fall into the Russian sphere. The
rather more likely outcome is that they will come together themselves to form an
anti-Iran (and consequently anti-Russian) bloc. Nevertheless, if Putin sees a
chance to drive a wedge between the United States and their clients, he is sure
to take it to take it: so of course he will try to cause mischief with the
Israel-Palestine issue.
Stability through sustainability
Khalid Abdulla-Janahi/Al Arabiya/April 24/16
The Middle East must take a more strategic view of its investment strategies and
focus specifically on the urgent creation of new job opportunities for its
people. This is key to our survival into the future. To address the challenges
we face across the Middle East and North Africa region, particularly post the
so-called Arab Spring, we must recognise that job creation is perhaps the only
path to meaningful, long-term sustainability which, in turn, allows room for the
stability we so desperately seek. All other approaches take a dangerous,
short-term view and, by failing to address the underlying issues, contribute to
the problem, not the solution. The International Labor Organisation’s 2014
report puts unemployment across the Middle East at 11.5 percent, the second
highest in the world. That fact alone should get our collective alarm bells
ringing and, when we factor in population growth rates, the need for urgency
becomes painfully obvious. Infrastructure development, including building roads,
ports, railways and other transportation networks, is a quick, easy way to
create large numbers of new jobs. A well-developed infrastructure that will
allow, even facilitate, economic activity and subsequent growth is an added
bonus and a welcome by-product of such development. Jobs right now, and
potential for accelerated growth in the near future. It sounds ideal. Such
infrastructure development, however, requires very significant investments – by
some accounts, more than US$1 trillion across the MENA region over the next few
years alone.
If we don’t, we will be looking at a prolonged state of chaos across the region
as we struggle to come to terms with the new realities of a post Arab Spring
Middle East. Ironically, Arab nations have more than twice that invested abroad.
Even more ironically, these investments bring almost negligible financial
returns and even less socio-economic benefits. Instead of competing with one
another on who owns more hotels abroad, perhaps we should consider using at
least some of that wealth to help develop our own region and create sustainable
growth and, by extension, social and political stability.
MENA nations with surplus cash should reconsider their investment strategies and
seriously consider infrastructure development in countries like Egypt, Syria and
other so-called Arab Spring countries. This will go a lot further to
contributing to long-term sustainability and, subsequently, stability, than
propping new government systems by pumping cash and other financial aid. One
possible approach is to establish a MENA equivalent of the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a multilateral development bank that uses
investment as a tool to help build market economies. Like in the EBRD example,
the United States could be the largest shareholder and use some of the excess
Arab cash currently invested in the US, be it $20 billion a year or $50 billion
a year, to invest in sustainable development across the MENA region. If we
don’t, we will be looking at a prolonged state of chaos across the region as we
struggle to come to terms with the new realities of a post Arab Spring Middle
East.
How Saudi Arabia is planning
a new economic era
Nathan Hodson/Al Arabiya/April 24/16
On April 25, Saudi Arabia is expected to announce a comprehensive economic plan
aimed at pivoting the kingdom away from its heavy reliance on oil. The
much-touted creation of a $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund will be one pillar
of this plan. Another will be the National Transformation Program, which
includes a wide variety of reforms, from tax increases to spending cuts. This
strategic reform initiative will build on the multimillion-dollar advice of
several prominent consulting firms, a preview of which was given in a December
2015 McKinsey report. The many challenges facing Saudi Arabia are well known.
But if McKinsey’s assumptions and calculations prove correct, then the magnitude
of required reform is truly astounding. According to their report, “Even if the
government were to freeze the level of public expenditure in nominal terms to
contain the deficit and intervene in the labor market to stem rising
unemployment by limiting the influx of foreign workers, these reactive changes
would be insufficient to maintain current Saudi living standards or sound public
finances.”There can be little doubt that the government is serious about
economic transformation. But how far and how quickly they can push reforms are
two important questions. In other words, things are challenging. McKinsey’s
baseline scenario requires two enormous policy shifts and still won’t save Saudi
Arabia from severe economic hardship. Instead, it calls on the kingdom’s
leadership to be even more ambitious, focusing their efforts on increasing labor
productivity, building a stronger business environment, and managing finances
sustainably. What McKinsey has proposed is nothing short of revolutionary. For
example, under its full-potential scenario, the consulting firm presumes non-oil
government revenue to increase more than ten-fold between 2013 and 2030.
Steps toward change
Saudi Arabia has already taken a number of steps toward reform. The Saudi
Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) has simplified licensing procedures
for foreign investors. The government has raised the price of fuel and
electricity. And the kingdom has also already begun raising money both
domestically and internationally, in the midst of credit downgrades from major
rating agencies. Meanwhile, Saudi leadership has also recognized that much more
needs to be done, including fiscal consolidation and working to eliminate the
budget deficit in the next five years.
However, there is reason to be skeptical about the government’s ability to
deliver. As the Economist pointed out, “Saudi Arabia has promised reform before,
only for its efforts to fizzle into insignificance. Its capital markets are thin
and the capacity of its bureaucracy thinner.” It is much easier to pen a
strategic plan than to execute it. Previous plans have often fallen far short of
their goals. Productivity growth in Saudi Arabia has been low in recent decades.
Even if the government can somehow take immediate concrete steps to make the
business environment better functioning and more transparent and can also lop
off unproductive government spending, overhauling the education system and
reforming the civil service are monumental tasks. Every piece of the elaborate
reform puzzle comes with its own challenges. In order to have a real impact on
housing and development, the tax on unused land must be accompanied by the
execution of reforms in the mortgage market and on regulations. Meeting proposed
deadlines to adopt international accounting standards seems nearly impossible
given a shortage of qualified accountants in the kingdom and difficulties
ensuring sharia compliance. This is to say nothing of domestic political
concerns. The government should simultaneously placate the princes, garner the
support of the business community, and be careful not to upset or overburden the
masses with new taxes, reduced subsidies, and fewer government jobs. There has
already been some pushback from consumer groups about water prices. And while
targeted cash transfers to low- and middle-income Saudis will help relieve some
of the burden, the fact remains that Saudi citizens will still be asked to work
harder in jobs that pay less than they are accustomed to. There can be little
doubt that the government is serious about economic transformation. But how far
and how quickly they can push reforms are two important questions. It is one
thing to call for improvement in government delivery, a breakdown of barriers in
the private sector, and improved accountability. It is another thing to deliver
on these promises. However, even if Saudi Arabia can pull off only a fraction of
the proposed reforms and falls short of its lofty goals, it will be a meaningful
start to real economic transformation
Signing on to a more secure and stable world
Federica Mogherini/Al Arabiya/April 24/16
Joint article by EU High Representative and Vice President Federica Mogherini
and EU Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete. The
signing of the Paris Agreement in New York on Friday was a historic event and an
important step towards implementing the world's first global climate deal. A
record number of countries attended: the whole world is committed to turning the
promises we made in Paris into concrete action. The Paris spirit is alive and
well – and moving forward. In the past years we had listened to so many gloomy
predictions that a universal agreement would be impossible to achieve. Indeed,
there were strong reasons for being sceptic. But our faith in diplomacy and
multilateral cooperation has paid off. And we must say out loud that Europe has
played a crucial role in creating consensus around a 195 countries-strong deal.
In the run up to the Paris climate conference, our Union mobilized its network
of 3,000 EU delegations and Member State embassies across the globe. This
dialogue with our partner countries, the general public, the business community
and civil society organisations has helped us build a global coalition to fight
climate change. This is European diplomacy at its very best: working together
for the good of Europe and the whole world. During the conference, Europe was a
strong voice for ambition. Our climate diplomacy set up a network of alliances
with the group of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states. We engaged
with both big players and smaller developing countries to aim for the highest
level of ambition. This now famous High Ambition Coalition was the game changer
in Paris. And our work goes on. Paris was just the beginning. Building on the
successful alliances we made in the run up to and during Paris will be crucial:
we will need each other's help to keep on track towards a global clean energy
transition. That is the only way to limit global warming to well below 2°C and
limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. European governments are serious about
climate change, and we will put into practice what was agreed on paper
Global temperatures have reached record levels. The impact of climate change
continues to threaten lives and destabilise entire regions. Collective action
worldwide is more vital than ever. Desertification and drought foster mass
movements of people, spread epidemics and create conflicts for the control of
resources. Climate change is already a foreign policy issue: it affects our
security right now, not in a distant future. Tackling this global threat must
continue to be at the heart of the European external action – all 28 EU foreign
ministers have agreed on that. Addressing the direct and indirect security
effects of climate change will be an important part of the new EU Global
Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy to be presented to the European Council
next June.
Limiting risks to peace
It is a complex threat, but we already have many of the tools we need to address
climate fragility and limit risks to peace. Our partners in the G7 are also
working hard to identify concrete areas for action. And yet our strategies on
climate change, development, humanitarian aid and peace building issues need to
be more strongly integrated. All our policies must keep an eye on climate change
issues, as suggested by the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
When time is short and financial resources are limited, we cannot afford
duplications and inconsistencies. National climate adaptation programmes could
identify and promote the co-benefits and synergies with other areas, such as
economic and social development, health, environment, and also peace. Our
priority now is to go for an early ratification and entry into force of the
Paris Agreement. This would send an important signal to the world: European
governments are serious about climate change, and we will put into practice what
was agreed on paper. For the same reason we cannot lose any time in bringing
into play the climate action plans we prepared in advance of Paris. We will
support our partners across the world as they prepare for implementation, and we
will keep engaging with non-State actors such as businesses, cities and many
others. Everyone has to play their part in the collective global effort ahead.
It is time to get down to the hard work of delivering on the Paris' promises. We
will need the same ambition and shared sense of direction which brought about
the deal. Our Union will keep leading the way – as it has always done – towards
a greener and safer planet.
The young prince and the new
Saudi Arabia
Turki Al-Dakhil/Al Arabiya/April 24/16
Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s interview with Bloomberg has shown glimpses of a
progressive vision for a new Saudi Arabia. Since the implementation of these
plans, the country has been going strong and has made progress in times of
difficult challenges. The prince reminds us that he is from a new generation
where challenges are different - a young generation which aspires to a modern
horizon where Saudi Arabia is a leader in modernization within a vital heritage
that does not obstruct it from performing this role. The deputy crown prince
said that the vision of Saudi Arabia comprises of developmental, economic,
social and other plans, adding that one of the elements of this vision is the
national transformation program.Saudi Arabia has started acting on these
promises even before these words came out. Exceptional measures have been put in
place, which is exactly what the country needs for the post-oil era. Among these
are issues related to broadening liberty, making adjustments to the world we
live in to facilitate investments that are non-binding by system and religion.
Journey into the future
This is a significant journey toward building a new country, which is structured
on the basis of the past 100 years. At the same time, there is a pursuit to
achieve integration and harmony with this post-globalization era, growing
economic challenges and utilizing human and natural resources. Over-dependence
on oil is a thing of the past. The society will one day see that plenty of what
is restraining it has no legal or religious basis and that it is instead due to
the accumulation of history and pre-judged convictions.